Apple iPhone versus Samsung Galaxy suddenly becomes more interesting
Updated on October 26 with new reports on the release of Google’s Gemini 2.0.
A new divide is coming for our smartphones, a divide that could completely change the way we view the iPhone-Android debate that has built a global duopoly – despite Huawei’s current attempt to get a third seat at that table to add.
Google and Samsung have given Apple an edge when it comes to smartphone AI, with the latest Pixel 9 almost being AI in a box and Galaxy AI dominating Samsung’s marketing messages and device updates. But there is a serious security and privacy issue that hasn’t yet gotten the attention it deserves, but it will.
Apple’s answer is to redefine cloud security, with the same rock-solid guarantees it claims for its iPhone. So confident is the company that it is offering up to $1 million to anyone who proves it wrong, and has now opened up its technology to researchers to try to crack it. This will be the next iteration of what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone, but adapted for a new era where that’s no longer true.
In a new blog post, Apple announces the “groundbreaking privacy and security protections” underpinning Apple Intelligence, which – like its Android equivalents – will no longer have juice on the device and move some of its processing to the cloud have to move. The answer is Private Cloud Compute. This ensures that “personal user data sent to PCC is not accessible to anyone other than the user – not even Apple,” the company explains, adding: “we believe PCC is the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI computing at scale.”
That’s not to say that Google and Samsung’s cloud AI are inherently insecure. But the hybrid model that limits sensitive processing to only devices is not the same as creating an extension of the device enclave in the cloud, a model that relies on Apple’s own silicon on both sides to ensure installation integrity.
Apple promised from the beginning that it would allow independent verification of its claims on an ongoing basis, and that is exactly what the company has done. “Today we are making resources publicly available to invite all security and privacy researchers – or anyone with interest and technical curiosity – to learn more about PCC and conduct their own independent verification of our claims.”
And they support this financially. “We are excited to announce that we are expanding Apple Security Bounty to include PCC, with significant rewards for reporting issues with our security or privacy claims.” These significant rewards amount to $1 million for “arbitrary code execution with arbitrary privileges” and lower-level bounties for compromising user data or requests.
As I said when PCC was first announced, “if this works as billed, it could redefine smartphone AI and create hurdles for [Apple’s] rivals that are almost impossible to jump. A closed ecosystem of device and cloud silicon, with a near end-to-end encrypted philosophy applied to any AI queries or data leaving a user’s device so that it is quasi-anonymized and thus encrypted and secured that an external examiner could provide third-party accreditation.”
What happens next will be fascinating and will define this new space for years to come. Apple says it believes this is “the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI computing at scale,” and that “verifiable transparency [is] a unique feature that sets it apart from other server-based AI approaches.”
As I said before: “Samsung has no answer for this – suddenly its hybrid AI approach seems crude and disappointing. Apple offers the best of both worlds and is willing to promise its users that ‘your data will never be stored or accessed’ [even] for Apple’, even in the cloud, while offering the best and clearest generative AI that cannot be completed on the device alone. PCC, at least in theory, redefines space.”
Now Samsung needs an answer to PCC. As with limiting sideloading and deploying a Knox ecosystem to compete with Apple’s equivalent, this needs the same recognition as the commitment to security and privacy has increased dramatically in recent years. Just look at Android 15, which is primarily a security and privacy update and which Samsung, ironically, has postponed for Galaxy devices.
Samsung is by far the dominant Android OEM and now has an opportunity to respond to PCC. But to do this it must determine how much of its device’s AI will be its own and how much will be Google’s. I fear that Google’s cloud-centric AI philosophy, Gemini Nano notwithstanding, will make this difficult to navigate. Apple, meanwhile, could buy itself the time it needs to catch up on AI features itself.
The challenge for Samsung will take a new twist before the end of 2024, with new reports suggesting that Google will launch Gemini 2.0 in December. “OpenAI is looking forward to a December debut for its next flagship AI model,” according to The Verge. “Fittingly, Google is also aiming to release its next major Gemini 2.0 model in the same month.”
With ChatGPT already debuting on iPhones, this will bring a lot of articles about the iPhone’s ability to push prompts to OpenAI in a different way without compromising user security, rather than doing the same in Gemini from Pixels and Samsungs.
In response to the latest reports, Android Heads says that “while we now have a possible Gemini 2.0 announcement and release date, it is still unclear what new features may come with the version update. Google has also not yet confirmed any details about the launch or what the new model will entail.”
And this is the crux. How will Google (and by proxy Samsung) respond to Apple’s AI implementation with iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2 by then?
Samsung’s approach to secure and private AI is more robust than Google’s. “We recognize the importance of privacy, which is why we give users full control over what they share and what they keep private,” the company says. “We believe our hybrid approach is the most practical and reliable solution to meet all these needs and that Samsung is leading the way. We offer users a balance between the instant responsiveness and added privacy assurance of on-device AI, and the versatility of cloud-based AI through open collaborations with leading partners in offering a variety of features they need for everyday life. ”
But Samsung phones also have Gemini. And that means that the offering is not fully under Samsung’s control. And that’s the difference the company must address as it responds to Apple. This will play a major role in the launch of Gemini 2.0, at about the same time as Apple’s most material upgrade to its own iPhone AI with iOS 18.2. We still have an interesting few months to wait, but so far there’s no indication that an answer to Apple’s PCC is waiting in the wings.
But maybe – just maybe – this won’t be as important as all the hype suggests. At least not yet. CNET just reported that “a quarter of smartphone owners (25%) do not find AI features useful, 45% are reluctant to pay a monthly subscription fee for AI capabilities, and 34% are concerned about privacy. Just over half (52%) of smartphone owners are not interested in purchasing a foldable phone. [And] The biggest motivation for US adult smartphone owners to upgrade their devices is longer battery life (61%), followed by more storage space (46%) and better camera features (38%). Only 18% say AI integrations are their top driver.”
